WEBVTT 1 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:16.239 This episode maintain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions 2 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:20.839 of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. 3 00:00:21.399 --> 00:00:36.039 Listener discretion is advised. Hi, this is Tanya. 4 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:38.600 Hi this is Shannon, and we are. 5 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:42.280 Crimes and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast. 6 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:47.880 Hey Shannon, Hey Tanya, how are you? 7 00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:50.240 I am doing well today? 8 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:54.880 How are you good? Good? Not too shabby? 9 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:58.159 That's awesome, you know, just kind of cruising. 10 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:03.000 We're in November now, yes, daylight savings time. Yeah. Oh 11 00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:06.439 it's been dark since gosh, what five five thirty, So 12 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:10.319 I have no idea what time it is. 13 00:01:10.640 --> 00:01:13.519 I know it could be ten pm, it could be six, 14 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:16.640 could be two ways. I don't know. 15 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:20.079 I have zero idea. So it's all been good. 16 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:21.480 It's so hard to get used to. 17 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:24.680 You know. It's like I've been feeling a little bit 18 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:28.640 of like lead jackety, you know, it was just like drainy. 19 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:33.920 Still feel a little congested just all around. I don't 20 00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:36.480 have a bug. I'm not sick, thank god, but I'm 21 00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:40.599 not feeling not feeling Shannon. Yeah, you know, it's more 22 00:01:40.719 --> 00:01:44.159 like Shannon, I'm tired. Yeah, I have to sleep immediately, 23 00:01:44.239 --> 00:01:47.799 and I have no energy. You know what it's the sun. 24 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:49.040 I gotta add vitamin D. 25 00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:52.560 Yeah, yeah, it makes me a lot of people, they say, 26 00:01:52.719 --> 00:01:57.040 a large population in Michigan we suffer from vitamin D deficiency. 27 00:01:57.560 --> 00:01:59.840 So yes, kelcapri. 28 00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:05.560 Cal's sapriz money. But what she got? Where is this week? Oh? 29 00:02:05.599 --> 00:02:08.800 I have a terrible story that comes out of Canada. 30 00:02:09.319 --> 00:02:13.879 It's not very old. It's from twenty fourteen, so this century. 31 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:16.360 And before I start, I would just like to remind 32 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:19.360 everyone to hit the subscriber follow on whatever app you're 33 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:21.879 listening to. So are you ready? 34 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:23.639 I'm ready? Okay. 35 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:27.599 At first, there was only quiet. It was the kind 36 00:02:27.639 --> 00:02:30.759 of silence that doesn't belong in a house where a 37 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:34.000 five year old has just spent the night. The kitchen 38 00:02:34.039 --> 00:02:38.120 clock ticked softly in the background. The air felt still. 39 00:02:38.599 --> 00:02:42.960 The hallway smelled faintly of metal and something sour. Jennifer 40 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:46.960 O'Brien stood at the threshold of her parents' home and felt, 41 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:51.680 before she understood, that something was terribly wrong. She'd come 42 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:55.439 early that Monday morning, June thirtieth, twenty fourteen, to pick 43 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.280 up her son, Nathan. The long weekend had been full. 44 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:05.000 Her parents, Elvin and Catherine Likeness, were preparing to move, 45 00:03:05.800 --> 00:03:09.240 sorting through boxes and memories, and they had held an 46 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:14.439 estate sale that drew neighbor's friends and the curious. Nathan 47 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:19.360 had begged to stay overnight. He loved his grandparents fiercely, 48 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:23.479 the pancakes in the morning, the stories at bedtime, the 49 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:28.719 special attention that only grandparents can give. Jennifer relented. One night, 50 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:31.560 she said, I'll see you in the morning. Now it 51 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:34.960 was morning and they were gone. She took a few 52 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:39.879 steps inside. A chair was overturned, A framed photograph lay 53 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.080 face down on the floor. In the guest room, she 54 00:03:43.199 --> 00:03:45.879 noticed a sheet twisted at the corner of the mattress, 55 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:49.240 a patch of carpet discolored by something she couldn't name. 56 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:54.560 Her mind raced through possibilities, a medical emergency, a break in, 57 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:58.000 but the front door hadn't been forced, and the keys 58 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:00.759 still hung on the hook by the entrance. When she 59 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:04.560 called nine one one, her voice shook. My parents and 60 00:04:04.599 --> 00:04:07.919 my son are missing, she said, there's blood in the house. 61 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:12.680 Within an hour, Calgary police were unseen. By mid morning, 62 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:16.079 yellow tape fluttered in the suburban breeze, and neighbors stood 63 00:04:16.079 --> 00:04:20.600 on lawns, whispering and disbelief. By afternoon, an amber alert 64 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:24.920 went out across Alberta, the longest one ever issued in 65 00:04:24.959 --> 00:04:30.600 the province's history. Billboards, television crawls, radio stations, and cell 66 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:36.560 phones repeated the same message, missing Nathan O'Brien, five years old, 67 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:41.279 last scene with grandparents Alvin and Catherine likeness. The news 68 00:04:41.279 --> 00:04:45.759 spread with the velocity of panic. Parents double checked their doors. 69 00:04:46.120 --> 00:04:51.240 Grandparents clutched their grandchildren tighter. Calgary, a city that prided 70 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:56.079 itself on safety, prosperity, and community, found itself staring into 71 00:04:56.120 --> 00:04:59.240 a void. By the first week of July twenty fourteen, 72 00:05:00.040 --> 00:05:04.120 Ulgrey's collective anxiety had curled into dread. The amber alert, 73 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:10.199 still active, still unanswered, had entered its fifth day. Police 74 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:14.040 had received more than one thousand tips from across Alberta 75 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:17.839 and neighboring provinces, but nothing led to the missing family. 76 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:22.439 In the city's southwest quadrant, a home on thirty eight 77 00:05:22.600 --> 00:05:28.160 A Avenue had become a monument to absence. Reporters lingered 78 00:05:28.160 --> 00:05:33.879 outside the air, heavy with questions. Volunteers taped missing posters 79 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:37.839 to lamp posts. Their corners curling in the dry prairie wind, 80 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:41.600 each bore the same smiling faces, A bright eyed little 81 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:45.240 boy and his grandparents, the kind of image that gnaweded 82 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:49.279 even the most stoic viewer, and then came the name 83 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:54.639 Douglas Garland, the first solid lead since the disappearance. On 84 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:59.920 July first, Canada Day, detectives arrived at a modest acreage 85 00:06:00.279 --> 00:06:05.079 near Airdrie, Alberta, about twenty five miles north of Calgary. 86 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:09.639 The property, hemmed in by willows and rusting machinery, belonged 87 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:12.959 to the Garland family. Duglin Garland lived there with his 88 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:17.600 elderly parents, Arthur and Gwendolen. The family kept largely to 89 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:22.639 themselves to neighbors. Douglas was ad but harmless, a middle 90 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:26.920 aged man who tinkered with engines and electronics. He was 91 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:30.000 known to make late night runs into Calgary for supplies, 92 00:06:30.079 --> 00:06:34.319 but rarely stayed long enough to speak. What few remembered 93 00:06:34.439 --> 00:06:39.040 was his past, the aliases, the fraud, the failed life 94 00:06:39.079 --> 00:06:44.319 experiments that had accumulated like junk around the farm. In 95 00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:47.839 nineteen ninety two, Garland had vanished for nearly seven years 96 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:51.319 after a drug related arrest, living under a false identity 97 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:55.480 in British Columbia. Before being caught. He had studied science 98 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:59.839 and university but never completed his degree. People described him 99 00:06:59.839 --> 00:07:05.759 as intelligent, mechanical minded, but emotionally stunted, and he carried 100 00:07:05.800 --> 00:07:12.600 grudges like Talismans. Years earlier, Garland had collaborated with Alvin 101 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.319 Likeness on a pump design for oil and gas extraction. 102 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:20.079 When Likeness filed for his own patent in two thousand 103 00:07:20.079 --> 00:07:24.360 and seven, Garland felt robbed. Family members would later testify 104 00:07:24.439 --> 00:07:28.600 that he'd spoken bitterly about Alvin for years, referring to 105 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:33.519 him with disdain. That resentment had festered long enough to 106 00:07:33.600 --> 00:07:38.759 become obsession. The first time officers visited the Garland farm, 107 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.439 Douglas was polite, cooperative even He told them he hadn't 108 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:49.079 seen the Likenesses in years, but detectives noticed small inconsistencies 109 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:53.120 in his story. He referred to the Likeness's estate sale 110 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:57.959 before police had made that information public. He stammered when 111 00:07:58.040 --> 00:08:01.040 asked about his whereabouts the night of June twenty ninth. 112 00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:04.199 Police returned the next day with a search warrant. What 113 00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:09.360 they found deepened their knees, tire tracks matching those seen 114 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:13.879 outside the Likeness home, shoes with a tread pattern resembling 115 00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:17.439 one found in blood at the crime scene, a burn 116 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:23.000 barrel filled with partially melted plastic and unrecognizable debris. In 117 00:08:23.079 --> 00:08:28.759 Garland's workshop, investigators discovered a trove of comical containers, cutting tools, 118 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:33.000 and a small homemade incinerator behind the house. In an 119 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:36.799 overgrown patch of grass, searchers found what appeared to be 120 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:40.759 drag marks, as if something heavy had been pulled across 121 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:44.679 the soil. It was enough to detain Garland for questioning. 122 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:48.879 The breakthrough came from what the forensic team called trace 123 00:08:49.200 --> 00:08:55.840 persistence in Layman's terms, no one cleans perfectly. When specialists 124 00:08:55.919 --> 00:09:00.440 combed through Garland's garbage, they found faint, reddish smea on 125 00:09:00.440 --> 00:09:03.360 the edge of a tool chest. They swabbed it. The 126 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:09.080 DNA matched Nathan O'Brien. Further testing identified Alvin and Catherine 127 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:13.399 in separate samples throughout the property, on a saw, a 128 00:09:13.440 --> 00:09:17.399 pair of rubber boots, and inside a truck bed. The 129 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:24.240 evidence suggested a night of methodical brutality. Forensic testimony later 130 00:09:24.279 --> 00:09:32.480 described the sequence as quote abduction, transport, homicide, disposal end quote. 131 00:09:32.919 --> 00:09:35.519 It was a kind of language meant to strip away emotion, 132 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:39.159 but everyone in the room knew what it meant. Police 133 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.639 returned to the likeness home. With new eyes, they reconstructed 134 00:09:42.639 --> 00:09:46.120 the scene from blood spatter and scuff marks. The evidence 135 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:51.919 told a grim story. Garland entered after midnight, subdued the likenesses, 136 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:56.600 and abducted all three, taking Nathan because he was a witness. 137 00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:00.759 He loaded them into his pickup drove norm and brought 138 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:04.879 them to his property, where the killings occurred within hours. 139 00:10:05.559 --> 00:10:09.799 The bodies were never found. On July fourteenth, twenty fourteen, 140 00:10:10.320 --> 00:10:13.559 Calgary Police announced that Douglas Garland had been charged with 141 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:17.000 three counts of first degree murder. At the press conference, 142 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:22.120 Chief Rick Hanson spoke slowly, visibly worn by the investigation. 143 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:23.759 Quote. 144 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:27.039 We believe we have the evidence to support that these 145 00:10:27.159 --> 00:10:31.480 individuals are deceased, he said, and we believe we have 146 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:36.120 the same person responsible in custody end quote. The words 147 00:10:36.320 --> 00:10:41.000 landed like thunder. For two weeks, Calgary had held out hope, fragile, 148 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:45.159 irrational hope that Nathan and his grandparents might still be alive, 149 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:50.080 that maybe somehow there'd been a ransom, a misunderstanding, a 150 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:54.919 miracle waiting to unfold. That hope died with Hanson's statement, 151 00:10:55.919 --> 00:11:00.279 Jennifer O'Brien wept publicly that day. Her grief, raw and 152 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:03.840 defiant quote. I know my son is with my parents. 153 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:08.440 I know they're together. End quote. In the weeks that followed, 154 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.840 the city became a kind of memorial. Children left toy 155 00:11:11.879 --> 00:11:16.120 cars and teddy bears outside the Likeness home. Sidewalk chalks 156 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:22.120 spelled love for Nathan. Churches held vigils, candles burned on porches. 157 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:26.840 Strangers embraced it intersections. It wasn't just grief, It was 158 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:30.440 disbelief that such a thing could happen here, to people 159 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:33.360 like this, in a neighborhood that it always seemed immune 160 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:38.679 to tragedy. Reporters wrote of the Calgary stillness, a collective 161 00:11:38.840 --> 00:11:42.000 quiet that hung over the city that summer. Even after 162 00:11:42.039 --> 00:11:45.320 Garland's arrest, the missing bodies left a hollow space in 163 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:48.360 every headline. No one wanted to believe that a little 164 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:53.440 boy's sleepover, that simplest, sweetest act of family, could end 165 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:58.440 in such horror, but the evidence was undeniable. The monsters, 166 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:02.919 it turned out, didn't always live from home. The Garland 167 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:05.480 farm sat at the edge of a gravel road that 168 00:12:05.639 --> 00:12:10.440 dusted out towards the prairie horizon, an ordinary Alberta acreage 169 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:14.320 until police began to dig. In July twenty fourteen, the 170 00:12:14.360 --> 00:12:19.440 Calgary Police Service transformed the Quiet Air Dree property into 171 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:22.960 one of the largest crime scenes in Canadian history. For 172 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:28.200 eight weeks, investigators sifted through soil, ash and metal scraps. 173 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:33.799 They cataloged every fragment, every burn pile, every stain. What 174 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:37.799 they found was a geography of horror. Detectives called it 175 00:12:37.960 --> 00:12:41.639 the search of a lifetime. More than one hundred officers, 176 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:47.759 forensic technicians, and evidence recovery experts rotated through twelve hour shifts. 177 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:54.120 They combed through barns, sheds and fields. Specialized anthropologists from 178 00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:58.480 the University of Alberta were brought in to identify bone fragments, 179 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:04.080 while fire andats mapped burn patterns across the site. They 180 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:10.000 unearthed thousands of items, a child's toothbrush, scorched fabric, and 181 00:13:10.039 --> 00:13:15.279 the remains of power tools modified in disturbing ways. At 182 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:17.720 the center of the property was the clearing where Garland 183 00:13:17.720 --> 00:13:21.600 had built what he called a burn barrel, a makeshift 184 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:26.000 incinerator fashioned from an old oil drum. Within it, police 185 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:29.159 found the remains of a small chain, a button from 186 00:13:29.240 --> 00:13:33.480 children's pajamas, and traces of blood. Just beyond the main yard, 187 00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:38.039 a second burn site stretched into the treeline. The ground 188 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:42.320 had been disturbed, the ash layer thick with melted plastic 189 00:13:42.399 --> 00:13:46.440 and metal shards. When sifted through fine screens, the soil 190 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:53.039 revealed microscopic bone fragments, calcigned by fire and impossible to 191 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:56.919 identify through DNA. By the end of the eighth week, 192 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:01.759 searchers had recovered more than six hundred bone fragments, none 193 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:06.679 larger than a fingertip. If the farm was the final chapter, 194 00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:09.960 the basement of the Garland homed was the prologue. The 195 00:14:10.159 --> 00:14:13.360 scene of confinement. In a locked room beneath the stairs, 196 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:18.000 police discovered a cot, zip ties and restraints. Nearby was 197 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:22.519 a small table holding chemical containers, latex gloves, and duct tape. 198 00:14:23.159 --> 00:14:27.039 Forensic biologists later testified that they found DNA belonging to 199 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:30.440 all three victims in the room, particularly on the floor 200 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:35.440 and the bindings. One detective called it a chamber of control. 201 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:39.600 They also found medical books and online printouts about dismemberment 202 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:46.120 and incineration techniques. Garland had apparently researched bone ash disposal 203 00:14:46.679 --> 00:14:52.399 and destroying DNA and fire. He wasn't impulsive, he was methodical. 204 00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:56.080 By the time the trial began, in January twenty seventeen, 205 00:14:56.519 --> 00:15:01.399 prosecutors had assembled a narrative built from fragments physical, digital, 206 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:06.000 and psychological. They called it a case without bodies. In 207 00:15:06.080 --> 00:15:09.879 place of corpses, there were ashes in place of eyewitnesses. 208 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:13.600 There were traces the kind of forensic whispers that spoke 209 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:18.159 louder than any confession. One of the prosecution's most damning 210 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:22.720 exhibits was the GPS data from Garland's truck On the 211 00:15:22.799 --> 00:15:25.080 night of June twenty ninth. His vehicle had left the 212 00:15:25.399 --> 00:15:29.879 Airdree farm around nine forty five pm, traveled to the 213 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.840 Likeness neighborhood, remained there for two and a half hours, 214 00:15:34.240 --> 00:15:38.399 then returned home just before three am. At four fifteen am, 215 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:42.879 the truck's movement sensor detected activity again, the beginning of 216 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:47.519 what police believed was the destruction of evidence. Even Garland's 217 00:15:47.559 --> 00:15:50.720 Internet history was a confession of sorts. He had searched 218 00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:55.159 for terms like how to erase blood evidence, forensic DNA 219 00:15:55.279 --> 00:16:01.519 heat resistance, and how long bones burn. When officers seized 220 00:16:01.559 --> 00:16:08.320 his computer, they found folders labeled Pumps, family, and Chillingly Likeness. 221 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:12.679 Inside that last folder were photographs taken years earlier of 222 00:16:12.759 --> 00:16:17.559 Alvin's workshop, his patent documents, and his house. This wasn't 223 00:16:17.639 --> 00:16:22.159 random violence. It was a vendetta executed with surgical precision. 224 00:16:23.440 --> 00:16:28.000 The Crown called it a slow burn of resentment. Prosecutors 225 00:16:28.039 --> 00:16:31.240 traced the feedback to the early two thousands, when Garland 226 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:35.120 had worked briefly with Alvin Likeness on an oil field 227 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:39.440 pump prototype. When the patent was later filed under Likeness's 228 00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:44.240 name alone, Garland felt erased. In his mind, Alvid had 229 00:16:44.440 --> 00:16:48.360 taken not only his idea but his dignity. Family members 230 00:16:48.360 --> 00:16:51.600 testified that Garland nursed that wound for nearly a decade, 231 00:16:52.200 --> 00:16:57.159 replaying the perceived betrayal like a looped recording. And so 232 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:01.200 when Garland learned through a relative but that the Likenesses 233 00:17:01.200 --> 00:17:03.919 were holding in a state sale, a detail that made 234 00:17:03.960 --> 00:17:07.640 the news, he saw an opening, a public event, an 235 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:11.759 unlocked door. Investigators believed he planned the attack for weeks. 236 00:17:12.319 --> 00:17:16.400 The presence of Nathan didn't deter him. It simply became 237 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:19.799 part of the logistics. When the trial opened it in 238 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:23.599 January twenty seventeen, the courtroom in Calgary's Court of Queen's 239 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:27.519 Bench was silent except for the hum of reporters, recorders, 240 00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:33.680 Douglas Garland sat motionless, his expression unreadable. The Crown's case 241 00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:39.880 unfolded with clinical precision, blood pattern analysis, DNA charts, photographs 242 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.599 of scorched debris. But behind each piece of evidence was 243 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:47.519 the quiet presence of Jennifer and Rod O'Brien, who attended 244 00:17:47.599 --> 00:17:52.079 every session. They sat through it, all, the photographs, the testimony, 245 00:17:52.400 --> 00:17:57.680 the unimaginable details. Prosecutor Shane Parker's closing words cut through 246 00:17:57.720 --> 00:18:02.039 the air like glass quote. This was not spontaneous. This 247 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:06.279 was planned, delibered, and fueled by hate. Three people lost 248 00:18:06.319 --> 00:18:11.119 their lives because of one man's bitterness. After just seven 249 00:18:11.160 --> 00:18:16.279 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous verdict guilty 250 00:18:16.319 --> 00:18:20.599 on all three counts of first degree murder. Justice David 251 00:18:20.640 --> 00:18:24.680 Gates sent in Scarland to three concurrent life sentences with 252 00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:29.400 no possibility of parole for seventy five years, effectively a 253 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:33.680 death sentence. By time, your actions are the most despicable 254 00:18:33.880 --> 00:18:37.880 the Court has ever encountered, Justice Gates said. In the 255 00:18:37.880 --> 00:18:42.400 public gallery, Jennifer O'Brien wept silently, clutching a photo of 256 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:45.680 her son outside a crowd gathered in the winter air. 257 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:51.039 People hugged strangers, others simply stood had bowed. The verdict 258 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:54.440 didn't bring closure, how could it, the bodies were never found. 259 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:57.880 But it brought something closer to peace, the certainty of guilt, 260 00:18:57.920 --> 00:19:02.480 the acknowledgment of truth. In the months that followed, Calgary 261 00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:06.400 built a small memorial garden in Nathan's name, the O'Brien 262 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:10.880 in likeness. Families withdrew from public view, tending to private grief, 263 00:19:11.480 --> 00:19:15.000 while the community learned to live with the absence. The 264 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:18.799 case remained a benchmark in Canadian criminal history, not only 265 00:19:18.799 --> 00:19:22.799 for its brutality, but for its endurance. The O'Brien's public 266 00:19:23.119 --> 00:19:25.880 grace became a symbol of resilience in the face of 267 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:31.000 unspeakable loss. As one columnist wrote in the Calgary Herald, quote, 268 00:19:31.039 --> 00:19:33.680 this was not a story about monsters hiding in the dark. 269 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:36.480 It was about one man who let hatred become his 270 00:19:36.559 --> 00:19:39.559 purpose and a city that refused to let him have 271 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:43.920 the last word. For most people in Calgary, the summer 272 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:48.599 of twenty fourteen remains divided into before and after. Before 273 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:52.920 June thirtieth, when Nathan O'Brien's sleepover was a small, joyful 274 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:57.599 moment in an ordinary family's life, and after, when that 275 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.839 same night became a wound that would change the city forever. 276 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:05.599 Years later, the Likeness home on thirty eight A Avenue remains, 277 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:10.359 but the house is quieter now. The estate sale sign longne, 278 00:20:10.839 --> 00:20:14.519 the walls repainted, the curtains replaced, But those who lived 279 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:18.279 through that time still drive past slowly. Some leave flowers, 280 00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:22.480 others avert their eyes. The murders of Nathan, Alvin and 281 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:26.240 Catherine were not only a family tragedy. They became a 282 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:30.440 collective trauma, a test of civic compassion, in a case 283 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:35.359 that reshaped how Canada thinks about justice, vengeance, and forgiveness. 284 00:20:36.200 --> 00:20:40.799 For months after Garland's conviction, Jennifer O'Brien continued to make 285 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:45.039 quiet appeals for information about the location of her family's remains. 286 00:20:45.440 --> 00:20:48.759 She said it wasn't closure she sought, but truth. Quote. 287 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:53.079 You can't vary grief, she told CBC's The National. But 288 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:55.599 you can ground it, you can give it somewhere to 289 00:20:55.680 --> 00:20:59.519 rest end quote. In private, she worked with police on 290 00:20:59.640 --> 00:21:04.039 Kadet Ever, dog searches and aerial surveys around the Garland property, 291 00:21:04.359 --> 00:21:08.480 hoping for even a small recovery. None came. The Royal 292 00:21:08.519 --> 00:21:14.559 Canadian Mounted Police eventually declared it improbable that identifiable remains 293 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:18.640 would ever be found. Forensic experts testified that the bone 294 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:23.720 fragments collected had been reduced to calcium dust. Victims of 295 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:28.039 both violence and fire, the absence of bodies left a 296 00:21:28.359 --> 00:21:33.359 peculiar ache, one that rippled through every conversation about the case. 297 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:38.160 The idea of disappearance became as heavy as the murder themselves. 298 00:21:39.039 --> 00:21:42.839 Garland's sentence, life without parole for seventy five years, was 299 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:47.119 one of the harshest ever handed down in Canadian legal history, 300 00:21:47.599 --> 00:21:51.839 but even that felt inadequate to many. Canada, a nation 301 00:21:52.079 --> 00:21:55.559 without the death penalty, had little language for crimes of 302 00:21:55.559 --> 00:22:00.920 such premeditated cruelty. Legal scholars debated whether the scents represented 303 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:05.480 deterrence or symbolism, a judicial declaration that some acts sit 304 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:09.440 beyond redemption. For the O'Brien's, it was enough that Garland 305 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:13.000 would never walk free. Quote. He doesn't get to erase them. 306 00:22:13.519 --> 00:22:16.880 Jennifer sat outside the courthouse. He doesn't get to go home. 307 00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:21.359 End quote. The judges words lingered to quote. In thirty 308 00:22:21.400 --> 00:22:24.279 five years on the bench, I have never encountered such 309 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:29.200 depravity end quote. The courtroom was silent, then, not because 310 00:22:29.359 --> 00:22:32.759 justice was complete, but because there was nothing left to say. 311 00:22:33.559 --> 00:22:38.000 In twenty nineteen, the O'Brien family, joined by hundreds of Calgarians, 312 00:22:38.400 --> 00:22:42.680 unveiled the Nathan O'Brien Children's Foundation field House, a bright, 313 00:22:42.799 --> 00:22:45.920 open space filled with the sounds of laughter and play. 314 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:49.880 This is what healing sounds like, Jennifer said at the opening. 315 00:22:50.440 --> 00:22:54.039 Her voice trembled, but her resolve did not. For those 316 00:22:54.079 --> 00:22:57.839 who covered the story, the emotional imprint was permanent. Reporters 317 00:22:57.839 --> 00:23:01.039 spoke of how the case blurred the lines between professional 318 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:06.079 detachment and shared grief. Police officers cried in their cars 319 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:10.000 after long shifts at the Garland farm. Volunteers who searched 320 00:23:10.039 --> 00:23:12.720 the field said they still dream of the prairie wind 321 00:23:12.920 --> 00:23:17.559 rustling through empty grass. Calgary, a city often defined by 322 00:23:17.599 --> 00:23:22.160 oil and optimism, found itself defined for a time by mourning. 323 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:26.720 Yet that morning built something like unity. Churches opened their 324 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:31.880 doors around the clock, neighbors held vigils and parks. When 325 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:36.599 Garland's trial ended, one local columnist wrote quote, we came 326 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.759 to understand that evil doesn't need a reason, it only 327 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:44.200 needs space. But we also learned that community is stronger 328 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:48.119 than cruelty. In twenty twenty, three. Nearly a decade after 329 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:51.920 the murders, Jennifer O'Brien told The Globe and Mail she 330 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:55.799 no longer drives past her parents' old home. It's just 331 00:23:55.880 --> 00:23:59.960 a house, she said, quietly. They're not there. What remained 332 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:03.440 instead is a memory and the quiet determination to fill 333 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:06.920 that memory with light rather than darkness. Quote. I want 334 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:10.200 people to remember Nathan's laugh. I don't want him to 335 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:14.680 be defined by what was taken, she said. In Kilary's 336 00:24:14.880 --> 00:24:19.000 southwest suburbs, just beyond the bustle of Glenmore Trail, the 337 00:24:19.119 --> 00:24:22.839 nights are peaceful again, but for money, the image remains. 338 00:24:23.160 --> 00:24:26.680 A small boy's pajamas folded neatly in a bag, his 339 00:24:26.839 --> 00:24:29.720 favorite game left on the floor, a promise to call 340 00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:33.160 in the morning. He never got the chance. The sleepover 341 00:24:33.480 --> 00:24:37.640 never ended, but neither did the love that refused to 342 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:41.519 forget him. And that, my friend, is. 343 00:24:41.799 --> 00:24:46.200 That is an incredible story. It's so deep and tragic 344 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:50.920 and oh just heavy. I have so many emotions about it. 345 00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:57.119 About this guy Douglas, the planning how you said it 346 00:24:57.160 --> 00:25:00.200 was years of the pictures of the house. He had 347 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:04.559 a folder. He looked up stuff, this is this is 348 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:07.880 terrible And then he plans it for the twenty ninth 349 00:25:08.039 --> 00:25:12.839 and just how nothing's an accident kind of thing. That's 350 00:25:12.839 --> 00:25:15.519 when Nathan's like, that could have been a deterrent for 351 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:18.799 him the grandchild, Like you did that to the child, 352 00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:21.240 because it made me think, this is two thousand you 353 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:27.559 said fourteen was giving law abiding citizen vibes. Have you 354 00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:28.720 ever seen that movie? 355 00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:29.759 Oh, who's in that? 356 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:32.759 Who's the guy who played in three hundred? Girard? 357 00:25:33.400 --> 00:25:34.519 Oh, Gerard Butler? 358 00:25:34.960 --> 00:25:40.799 Yes, yes, that's all but and Jamie Fox, but he 359 00:25:40.839 --> 00:25:45.200 avenges the death of his It's very energetic in the beginning, 360 00:25:45.319 --> 00:25:48.440 and his wife and daughter are killed by these two guys, 361 00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:51.839 and Jamie Fox gets the guys off, and now, of course, 362 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:54.279 now Girard is going to take the law into his 363 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:57.440 own hands, and he does this methodical way he gets 364 00:25:57.480 --> 00:26:01.319 the guy and he records it and it's just like 365 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:04.759 I've never seen the Saw movies, but I'd imagine it's 366 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:09.720 something just morbid and decrepit and horrible. And you know, 367 00:26:09.799 --> 00:26:12.240 if he's sick enough to do that, then he had 368 00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:16.160 them listen to each other, go, he had them, you know, 369 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:18.799 because that's a deep abysal hate. 370 00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:22.640 Yeah, I think, like, did he who did he kill first? 371 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:27.240 I'm thinking he killed Nathan first. He probably killed Jefron 372 00:26:27.359 --> 00:26:30.759 act to make Alvin suffer the most emotionally. 373 00:26:31.160 --> 00:26:35.240 But even like, yes, that is wow, that's just it 374 00:26:35.279 --> 00:26:40.039 blew me away, that is I can't even believe how horrible. 375 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:42.279 And then as a grandmother, you know, it's just like yeah, 376 00:26:42.680 --> 00:26:45.000 you know, as a grandparent you can be all like, oh, 377 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:49.480 of course your baby's safe with Grandma and Papa, you know, 378 00:26:50.119 --> 00:26:53.400 and that's like the furthest place you would think harm 379 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:56.799 would come to your child. And then Jennifer just doing 380 00:26:56.880 --> 00:26:59.039 what a hero? I mean, how do you even say 381 00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:01.640 a hero? What a phenomenal person. 382 00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:06.119 She's just incredibly strong. I've thought about something happening to 383 00:27:06.200 --> 00:27:09.440 my child and I would be destroyed, and her, she 384 00:27:09.839 --> 00:27:15.000 is destroyed. And it's always amazing to see someone get 385 00:27:15.039 --> 00:27:19.519 on with their lives, you know, yes, when such tragedy happens. 386 00:27:20.039 --> 00:27:26.039 So I hope Jennifer is somewhere and she is okay. 387 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.599 Having the foundation in Nathan's name probably helps a lot, 388 00:27:30.920 --> 00:27:33.960 I would think, you know, psychologically, it helps her, gives 389 00:27:33.960 --> 00:27:38.400 her a purpose and you know, doesn't allow Nathan's memory 390 00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:41.440 to die. And you know, she lost her parents. 391 00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:46.240 I'm surprised the house still stands. Honestly, it was such 392 00:27:46.279 --> 00:27:47.759 a benchmark case. 393 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:50.079 I know I'm surprised too. 394 00:27:50.680 --> 00:27:54.559 But this guy, that's just terrible and it's so heinous. 395 00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:56.839 I don't even know how I feel about having this 396 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:01.599 thought thought when you were explaining how Canada, because I 397 00:28:01.640 --> 00:28:04.079 do have that view of Canada where I'm like, oh, 398 00:28:04.160 --> 00:28:09.640 the Canadians are so nice. Oh hey, yeah, yeah, the 399 00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:15.319 little yeah, and so to hear something so awful, I 400 00:28:15.319 --> 00:28:18.920 would think, gosh, that sounds more America. Isn't that terrible 401 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:21.160